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Tuesday 3 April 2012

DE Tournament Report





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Hi guys,
       On Saturday, I went to a small 3-game 1850 tournament in Kouvola. There were 14 players and ETC style missions. 8 points are awarded for primary, 4 points for secondary and 8 points for KPs (max points at 1201+ VPs). I played my Venomspam+Hellion blob and came in tied 3rd place. Overall, it was another fun experience, and a good chance to practice 2h 15min rounds that are the norm in Adepticon (rounds are often 3+ hours in Finland).

First game was Capture and Control primary, KP secondary with Pitched Battle. I was playing against a full foot SW list (2 TWC lords, 5 TWC, 4x10 Grey Hunters and 3x5 Long Fangs). I won the roll off and the terrain was concentrated in the deployment zones. My opponent had no other choice then to move forward into the open. He should have still tried to give cover to his long fangs on t1 with grey hunters or TWC. Now I shredded his guys with ravagers followed by venoms. In the end, he got his twc into combat twice, destroying 2 venoms. I killed everything else (making some wounds to the deathstar) and we called it on t5. 20-0.

Second game was against my co-writer, Joo-o and his eldar. He had 2 falcons, 3 serpents, 3 walkers, avatar and 2x3 bikes. The serpents had 2x5 firedragons and a big avenger squad with eldrad. The mission was 3 objectives on the centre line, Capture and Control, Dawn of War. I won the roll off and deployed my hellions to threaten his base, the Baron with wracks further back. Here I should have deployed the haemonculus with the hellions. I realized on t3 that I couldn't get that second pain token. Idiot! Anyway, Joo-o deployed Eldrad's car and held the bikes in reserve. I came onto the centre, a little to the right flank where Joo-o's base was. Two ravagers tried to shoot the serpent but didn't see it. Joo-o abandoned his base and came on the left flank. There was no los-block and the objectives were on my side, but he did threaten my base.

We played really slowly and only made it to t3. Joo-o had a good t2, destroying 2 ravagers and a couple of venoms. I killed off the avatar and a serpent on t1-2. Joo-o got both his jetbikes on t2 and brought one onto his base as harassment. My t3, I suppressed almost all his vehicles (one falcon only lost a weapon) and charged the hellions into the walkers to keep them from shooting. Unfortunately, the game ended on t3. Joo-o managed to contest my base and my warriors were still fighting against one jetbike on his base. However, 3 wracks were holding one objective far away from the fighting on the right flank and VPs were a draw. 12-8 victory to the Dark Eldar.

The third game was KP primary, 3 objectives on the centre line secondary and Spearhead. My opponent had Njal, wolf scouts, a rhino, 2 Crusaders and a Godhammer. I once again won the roll off and started out hot, immobilizing two land raiders (the godhammer and a crusader). His return fire concentrated on the ravagers (destroying one). After that, I just couldn't roll with my lances (not too surprising) and didn' destroy anything. Luckily, his wolfscouts rolled a 2 and came on the worst flank possible, trying to destroy a venom and failing. Hellions got their third token from them and prepared to move in. My opponent brought out njal with a hunter squad on t4. I concentrated all my fire on the squad, but his was rolling hot with his saves, leaving a wounded Njal and 5 hunters.

The hellions charged the hunters and the rhino. Destroyed the rhino but Njal passed 5 saves and sticked with 2 hunters in combat. Chain Lightning wrecked 5 venoms and a trueborn squad died in the explosion. Nasty! There was some debate at the time, and afterwards about using the power from combat, but I might have been wrong in assuming I was safe with Njal in combat. The game ended on t6. I snatched another grey hunter squad with the hellions (after dealing with Njal and his buddies) and failed to destroy any raiders. My hellions got 5 killpoints, but I lost royally thanks to a well played chain lightning. I did win secondary and victory points were 200 points in my favour (not enough to give me extra points). 8-12 loss to the dark eldar.

The final loss bumped me down, but paint scores got me to tied 3rd place. Overall, I had a lot of fun at the tournament, and after that hanging out with the guys. I made some screwups (e.g. the hellions in game 2) and maybe had some bad luck/ unfamiliarity with rules in the last game but that is life. Certainly, I'll go there again!

2 comments:

  1. Hi,

    I'm an enthusiastic reader of your blog and this is my first time writing here. First of all, thank you for writing this blog, its nice to read it.

    IIRC your army has 9 vneoms + 15 hellions. Its pretty good against infantry but... dont you feel weak on the anti-tank department?

    How have your hellions performed against mech armys?

    Thanks in advance.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thx for the comment! I'm glad to hear that you enjoy the blog! I play 8 Venoms and the Hellions (since the hellions take away a troops slot and chance for a venom). It's true, it's more concentrated on anti-infantry, and lances are often nothing more then overcosted missile launchers. Without the night shields, my army would run 23-25 dark light weapons (depending on whether I take my wyches) and I drop 3 blasters for the night shields.

    I think it's more a matter of learning to play the list. I rarely find myself in a situation where I have no more antitank. It's suprising, but that's the truth. It's just all about the learning curve, learning to know when to minimize your opponent's chances to retaliate, and when to rely on saturation. Forcing bigger threats on your opponent can also help your antitank last. Finally, with furious charge (after 2 pain tokens; 1 from haemonculus and 1 from wracks) str5 hellions are pretty good at helping out with parking lots. They do add both antitank and anti-infantry to the list. With good multicharges, you can charge tanks and force damage results on them, whilst being locked in combat (and safe from shooting) in your opponent's turn.

    A lot of people say that venomspam is too fragile and reliant on good matchups, but those same matchups are bad no matter what kind of a list you run. Raiders aren't going to make them better imo.

    ReplyDelete

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